The twelve bases are: 1. the eye base, 2. the ear , 3. the nose base, 4. the tongue base, 5. the body base, 6. the mind base, 7. the visible-form base, 8. the sound base, 9. the smell base, 11. the tangible base, 12. the mental-object base. The twelve bases offer another perspective of the whole. From this perspective the totality of concrete entities is viewed by way of the doors and objects of consciousness. Bases 1-5 are identical with the five kinds of sensitive material phenomena and bases 7-11 with the five kinds of objective material phenomena. The mind base 6, however, has a wider range than the mind door. It is identified with the aggregates of consciousness in its totality, comprising all eighty-nine types of citta. The mental-object base does not completely coincide with mental object (dhammaaramma.na), but includes only those entities not found among the other bases. Thus it excludes the first five objective bases, the five types of sensitive matter, and citta, which is identical with the mind base. It also excludes concepts(pa~n~natti), since the notion of base(aayatana) extends only to ultimate realites, i.e. things existing by way of intrinsic nature(subhaava), and does not to things that owe their existence to conceptual construction. The mental-object base comprises the fifty-two mental factors, the sixteen kinds of subtle matters, and Nibbaana.

The Four Noble Truths are: 1. the noble truth of suffering, 2. the noble truth of the origin of suffering, 3. the noble truth of the cessation of suffering, and 4. the noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering.

The noble truth of suffering is expounded as twelvefold: the suffering of birth, ageing, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, association with the unpleasant, separation from the pleasant, not to get what one wants, and the five aggreagates of clinging. Concisely, the noble truth of suffering comprises all phenomena of the three mundane planes of existence except craving.

The noble truth of the origin of suffering is a single factor, anmely, craving(ta.nhaa), which is identical with the cetasika of greed(lobha). Craving, however, has three aspects: craving for sense pleasures(kaama-ta.nhaa), craving for continued existence(bhavata.nhaa), and craving for annihilation(vibhavata.nhaa). The Abhidhamma texts explain craving for continued existence as lust accompanied by the view of existence(bhavadi.t.thi), i.e. by the eternalist view; craving for non-existence as lust accompanied by the view of non-existence(vibhavadi.t.thi), i.e. by the annihilationist view.

The noble truth of the cessation of suffering is also singlefold: it is Nibbaana, which is to be realized by eradication of craving.

The noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path. In the teaching of the four truths, this is the collection of eight cetasikas corresponding to the eight path factors arisen in the cittas of the four supramundane paths. It should be noted that while in the section on the requisites of enlightement, the eight path factors may be either mundane or supramundane, in the teaching of the Four Noble Truths they are exclusively supramundane.